Analysis of Kanye West's album cover for college dropout.

Kanye West- College dropout.

Theme.

The overall theme was to "make your own decisions. Don't let society tell you, 'This is what you have to do.'

The parental advisory stamp gives the audience a slight give a way to the fact that it is rap music as it is featured mainly on this genres album covers.

Imagery.

The image of the teddy bear is linked to children and childhood but when they grow up the teddy gets left behind, the fact that the teddy bear is still there show’s that the artist may have struggled leaving behind his childhood life/memories.

The fact that the teddy bear is shown with brown fur relates to the context of the album which is telling the audience about Kanye’s experience of growing up and his school life where he suffered from racist abuse.

Background and meaning.

It is a mystery to the audience who is inside the teddy bear costume; it could be Kanye himself not wanting to reveal his failure or true thoughts about his early life.

The benches in the background show that the picture is taken in a school which relates to the stage of growing up. The teddy bear looks sad about where he is which could mean that he is unsure about the decision he has to make about growing up.

Multiple record companies ignored him because he did not portray the gangsta image prominent in mainstream hip hop at the time…neither does a teddy-bear.

Appearance.

The decoration has ‘old school’ connotations as it is a display of traditional Roman art and sculpture. This type of decoration is commonly seen but not necessarily in this context as it does not link in with the feature of the teddy bear.

Due to the clothes that the teddy bear is wearing shows that he seems to be too old to be in school but there’s where is pictured, so he has returned to review his old self which links in with the album name ‘college dropout.’

No logo or title. Wants people to listen to the music without them buying it just because it was made by the popular artist Kanye West.